


Table Top Conversations

by c3childs



Series: Talks over Tea and Tables [2]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Legend of Korra
Genre: F/M, Gen, OC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-11
Updated: 2012-06-11
Packaged: 2017-11-07 12:39:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/431291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c3childs/pseuds/c3childs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She can't stand him when he's wearing masks, and she wants to punch him in the face when he's being honest. Oneshot of one of Lin’s possible vigilante exploits. Might be AU or non-canon here or there as I missed episode 8 or whenever Tarrlok revealed his dark side.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Table Top Conversations

Near  to noon, most rooms within the expansive, floor level apartment were lit with grey light from the clouded sky. The bedroom was sealed tight in darkness. With one arm thrown over the side and tips of fingers resting on the intricate stonework floor, Lin awoke in measures. Vibrations travelled up her arm, sluggishly becoming a second sight in her mind. Someone walked – heavy, fit, male, swaggering steps – up the pathway to her door. She laid her hand flat against the cold floor, firmly on earth and identifying her guest precisely.

The discovery was hardly pleasant, and she seriously considered ignoring him but decided it was too much like hiding. No reason for that as she wasn’t afraid of him. It was the question of whether she wanted to deal with him.

He was a persistent weasel-rat though so it was best to cut off his head now before he worked himself into a frenzy.  She smiled a little, at the morbid thought of catching Tarrlok’s head in a trap, snapping it clean off.

Standing, she walked out of her bedroom, navigating around discarded armor and glancing at the bundle in the corner. It was a short journey to her front door as she eliminated one wall, combining the hallway and front parlor into one. Leaning on the wall, she waited for him to raise his fist then flung the door open.

“What?”

Barely ruffled by her abrupt manner, Tarrlok plastered on his oily smile.

“Good afternoon, Lin.”

Lips pursed, she stared. “Yeah.”

“May I come in?”

She stared at him a long moment backed away from the door, leaving it open. Lin saw his eyes wander curiously over her parlor. It wasn’t decorated to a particular taste, rather eccentric actually. There were a few pieces on display: a small, Piandao dagger; a hazy-looking painting that was either white mist or a woman; a pair of golden trimmed war fans; and an odd, monkey-like statue with almost glowing, ruby eyes.

“Care for tea?” she asked and didn’t wait for an answer but continued to the kitchen.

Lin went about preparing it, setting the water to boil. She used an old-fashioned technique that her mother had taught her. It was, she’d say with uncharacteristic warmth, the technique of the greatest tea-maker in the whole world. Tarrlok, she knew, had sat at the table and watched her all the while.

She joined him, leaning back with arms crossed and planting her feet on stone. A stone bowl filled with moon peaches and papaya was set in the middle of the table. He sat forward, one arm braced against the table. Open and welcoming, disarming and charming. Completely, utterly false.

“In all the years I’ve known you, I think I’ve seen you out of uniform once,” he said, voice filled with fondness, eyes a leer, heart…steady. “I wonder how many others can claim to have seen you without it.”

Her clothes were the same she’d fallen asleep in, plain tunic and trousers that stopped at the knees. The last time, she’d attended some gala for a reason she couldn’t remember, and Kya had forced her to wear a dress.

“What do you want, councilman?”

“Would you believe me if I said I was concerned?” Tilted his head, rolled his eyes, friendly grin. He was transparent.

“About me? No.”

Here, he took on that sympathetic look that won the hearts of so many koala-sheep. He could put up as many masks as he wanted, but Toph had taught her daughter well. This, she could see, was a man who felt deeply, but it was almost never what he showed on the surface.

“I’ve read the reports of the other night. You have my sincerest condolences in regards to your men but –“

“They are  _not_  dead.”

Would anyone notice if she buried him under her home, she wondered, digging her thumb nail into her bicep. Lin stood, went back to the stove to finish her tea.

“Of course not. I only meant that their abduction was an unfortunate turn of events, despite your success at uncovering Sato’s involvement.”

“Backtrack any faster and you might trip and break your neck.”

He had the presence of mind to attempt sheepish. His face and his body didn’t quite match.

 “As I understand it, you mean to resign. I had hoped to talk you into reconsidering.”

Lin returned to the table with a tea tray, poured her own and his, then sat back as she answered.

“Reconsider? I would think that you’d be too happy for my resignation and jumping for the chief position. It’d look so nice on your record.”

“Well, I’d be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind.”

An honest – smirk – smile on his face, he shrugged, taking up his own cup. Lin knew she liked him better when he was genuine but suddenly had an overwhelming need to punch him in the face for some odd reason.

Really, getting her job would be the trick, wouldn’t it. Smug, bloody hogmonkey.

“Let’s cut the niceties here, boy. We are in no way friends. Barely tolerated acquaintances who are about to see a lot less of each other, thank all ancestors. What do you care if I resign?”

He was frowning at the ‘boy’ comment. It was legitimate as he was thirteen years her junior. Her mother probably would have called him something like Lily, delicate touch as he was.

Eyes hard as ice, it still wasn’t quite a glare. At least he was dropping the front if only a little.

“I actually don’t intend to go to the council with my name as next police chief. My plans have been set for far too long to change them now. I do have someone else in mind however.”

“So what, come here for a recommendation?”

“Not necessary. I want your word that you’ll not engage in some kind of renegade cop escapade. I understand your concern for your men and such dedication might be admirable within the law. But understand this, Lin, that I will not permit vigilantism in this city.”

Lin was a little surprised that he came to that conclusion that she was going rogue on his own. Most people would think her too by the book to take law and justice into her own hands. The rules and laws were there for a reason, of course, to keep peace and order and protect the people, and she was very good at doing her job within its limitations. But in her five decades of life, Lin would be a fool to not know that sometimes, rules had to be bent in order to do the right thing. Sometimes, even the protectors needed rescuing, and the law, long reach though it had, was achingly slow.

 “A warning,” she said with a vicious smile. “ _If_  I were to engage in vigilantism, Tarrlok, believe me when I say you would never know. So don’t even worry about it. You just focus on getting your glory and reputation and everything lined up just right. But if you’re half as smart as I think, you’ll cut the Avatar loose before it bites you.”

“That again,” he sighed, clearly no longer trying to hide his irritation.

Because she irked him that much or because he realized there was no point with her?

Lin took a sip of tea, hiding her smile. It was gratifying to see with her own eyes that she annoyed him as much as he did her. Juvenile, yes, but she felt no shame for it.

“Still good advice. Avatars are notoriously hard to predict, impossible to control. And this one is a hormonal, teenaged  _girl_. That’s a dangerous breed all its own.”

 “Here I thought you didn’t care.”

“I rather like the city being intact.”

Tarrlok rolled his eyes but didn’t continue to argue the point with her. He quietly finished his tea, and she felt him gradually relax. Lin wasn’t sure that she liked him getting comfortable in her kitchen like that. It was grossly domestic. Not yet wanting to toss him out on his ear but slowly getting closer to that point Lin silently willed him to leave.

“Thank you for the tea, Chi - …I’m actually not sure what to call you now.”

“That would be Miss Beifong to you, councilman.”

“Of course.”

He stood, offering a bow so slight as to be mocking. Lin slurped her tea and looked pointedly toward the door way.

Lin sat still as she felt Tarrlok return to his sleek Satomobile and drive off, joining the rest of the city’s humming activity. She finished her tea at her leisure, taking a few minutes to feel the city’s heartbeat under her feet. Then she narrowed her focus to her street, her apartment, her own heartbeat and breathed. Stretching it out only a little farther, she felt her other guest’s panic.

He was kicking the walls, yelling against the stone gag. A few easy movements, and there was a stairway to a basement that wasn’t in the complex’s designs. The captive Equalist stilled, chest heaving. He tried to work his hands free but likely only chafed and scratched up his wrists. She felt him tilt his head. Searching for movement from her in the dim light maybe? She sealed the entrance when her head cleared the ceiling, so no chance of that.

After capturing him last night, she’d been too bruised and half numb to interrogate him. He also had been very insistently unconscious and nothing she’d done had roused him. She’d had no choice but to rest and had not intended to actually sleep that night, instead staying up through the night full of anger at herself, Amon and worry for her men. Her body had taken advantage of her stillness and shut her down almost immediately after she’d secured the prisoner. She didn’t even remember taking off her armor, let alone getting into bed. If not for her injuries, she might have forced herself to stay awake long enough to get some information from the Equalist. Impractically, she held something of a grudge against him now because of the lost time.

“I’ve already had my fill of small talk for the morning, so let’s get straight to it.”

Lin held her hand up, fingers together then splayed two wide. The stone cuffs split down the middle. Flip of her wrist, a quirk of slim fingers, and the cuffs reformed behind his back. She  _dragged_  her hand down, and his bonds sank into earth, forcing him to kneel. She marched and stood at ease in front of him, seeing him as plainly as the spiders that had found a home in the ceiling’s corner.

“Where are my men?”

She let the question hang in the air a moment before she removed the gag. He spat out gravel at her feet. He looked up at her, trembling with the effort of trying to free his hands. It was wasted energy that would only serve to dislocate his shoulders, but Lin surmised that he’d figure it out one way or another.

“Well?”

“I’d sooner rot here than betray Amon to you, filthy bender.”

Well, that was no doubt a truth. With that baseline established, she went on with the interrogation, squatting down to his level. If she focused, she could almost see the white of his eyes

“Do you know where they are?”

His already accelerated heart beat picked up double time.

“No.”

“Don’t waste my time with lies. Tell me where, and it’ll go easier for you.”

“Drop dead!”

She rolled her eyes in the dark and performing the stance easily, sank him into the ground up to his neck. His heart felt near to popping out of his chest.

“What are you doing? You’re insane!”

“My men?”

“I – I can’t tell you! I can’t bow to the whims of you tyrants. Amon will –“

“Have a nice memorial service for you.”

A simple gesture, and his hair was the only thing above ground

Naturally, his vitals became extremely erratic. A few seconds longer, and she’d bring him up only to put him back down again and however many times needed to get the information she needed. If he proved very stubborn then perhaps she’d keep him down a while longer than necessarily safe, turn him upside down, and  _squeeze_.

The idea of physically damaging his body was one she was willing to put off. There was the risk of infection or fever if she were to go too far, and considering she had kidnapped a man, locked him in a basement, and even considering this to be an option,  _that_  was a definite possibility. Besides that, she had no desire to be forced to play nurse the man from death’s door.

Lin pulled him out, letting him cough and gasp for air a moment. She lowered herself in front of him, one leg bent under her, the other a comfortable prop for her arm.

“Care to tell me what I want to know now?”

All she heard was short, desperate breaths.

“I can do this all day. I’d rather not because repeated oxygen deprivation can cause brain damage, and it’d be a real shame if it told your heart to stop beating.”

Still no answer. Lin buried him again.  Hands in the dirt, she waited and listened.

 


End file.
